Dougie Hamilton

Twice played for Team OHL in the Super Series against Russia (2010, 2011), recording three assists in two games in 2011.
Attended Canada’s National Junior development camp in August 2011.
Named the OHL and CHL Scholastic Player of the Year in 2010-11.
Twice named an OHL second team all-star (2009-10, 2010-11).
Won a silver medal with Ontario at the 2010 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.
Won the Ivan Tennant Award as top academic high school player in 2009-10.

Freddie Hamilton

Player Notes: Played for the OHL in the 2011 Super Series against Russia, recording a hat trick and finishing plus-4 in one game.
Attended Canada’s National Junior development camp in August 2011.
Represented Canada at the 2010 World Under-18 Championship, where he was named a Top 3 Player on his team.
Won a gold medal with Ontario at the 2009 World Under-17 Challenge.
Won the Ivan Tennant Award as top academic high school player in 2008-09.

Ryan Strome

Played for the OHL in the 2011 Super Series against Russia, recording two goals and three points in two games.
Attended Canada’s National Junior development camp in August 2011.
Named an OHL second team all-star in 2010-11.
Won a silver medal with Ontario at the 2010 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, recording two goals and three points in six games.

Mark Visentin

Backstopped Canada to silver medal at 2011 World Junior Championship, starting four games including the quarterfinal, semifinal, and gold medal game.
.923 SV% was fourth among goalies in tournament and 2.01 GAA ranked third.
Played for the OHL in the 2011 Super Series against Russia.
Attended Canada’s National Junior Team development camp in August 2011.
Named OHL Goaltender of the Year and first team All-Star in 2010-11.
Won a gold medal with Ontario at the 2009 World Under-17 Challenge.

Canada will play Switzerland in the early game (3:30pm). Will local Mark Visentin start for Canada?

Finland will play Russia in the late (7:30pm).

Both games will be played at HSBC Arena in Buffalo.

The United States received a bye by finishing atop Group A, will play the winner of Canada-Switzerland at 7:30pm, while Group B winner, Sweden, will take on either Finland or Russia in the other semi-finals at 3:30pm.

These games will be played a day later, Monday, January 3.

In the Relegation Round, Slovakia will play Norway and the Czech Republic will play Germany on January 2. Two days later, the Czechs will play Slovakia and Germany will tangle with Norway. The bottom two teams among these four will be playing in Division I next year.

Teams carry over the points from games against each other in the preliminary round. Thus, the Czech Republic carry over three points, Slovakia two, Germany one and Norway zero. All Relegation Round games will be played at Dwyer Arena.

The bronze and gold medal games will be played on January 5 at HSBC Arena.

Canada has dominated the IIHF World Under 20 Championship. They have medaled at twelve straight times, including gold medal performances in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, silver medals in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2010 and bronze medals in 2000 and 2001.

Canada will play its first game of the 2011 IIHF World U20 Championship on Boxing Day, December 26 in Buffalo versus Russia. This game promises to be a classic.

The Buffalo Sabres wish Mark Recchi was retired. At 42, the oldest player in the NHL, is having too much fun schooling Buffalo’s youngsters and winning Stanley Cup Playoff games to think of retiring. The League’s leading active scorer has been the Bruins’ driving force through the first three games of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal against the Sabres. Buffalo has a chance to tie up the series this Wednesday.

A 1993 Western Ontario Hockey League game between Sarnia Ranson Bees (blue) and the Niagara Falls All Stars (white). The fight started when a Sarnia player hit a Niagara Falls player from behind. A Niagara Falls player retaliated with a elbow and all hell broke loose.

I’m very excited about the possibility of a CANADA vs. USA men’s hockey gold medal final in the 2010 Olympics. For this to happen USA will have to defeat Finland and Canada will have to defeat Slovakia. I’m very surprised how many of the teams have performed, so rather than predicting who wins and what the score will be, I will predict this:

USA vs. Finland – Prediction: Fights

Canada vs. Slovakia – Prediction: Dives

Why? Because this is exactly what happened the last time these teams faced each other.

USA vs. Finland 2009 – Fight

Anssi Salmela, of Finland bleeds after a fight with David Backes of the United States during the IIHF World Ice Hockey Championship qualification round on May 11, 2008.

Canada vs. Slovakia Dec. 29th 2009 – Dive

Matus Rais, of Slovakia, pulls off one of the best dives against Canada during the 2010 IIHF World Junior Championships just a few weeks ago on December 29th, 2009.

Paul Henderson was a talented but unspectacular left winger who was the unlikeliest of heroes. Unlikely heroes have come to define Canadian hockey. Will there be a hero tonight as Canada takes on Russia at the Olympics?

On September 28th, 1972 Paul Henderson scored a remarkable goal that concluded the comeback victory over a Soviet hockey team that had pushed Canada to the brink of defeat. Of course, none of this was supposed to happen. Team Canada was composed of the NHL’s greatest stars, and were expected to easily defeat ‘the communists’. The success of the Soviets stunned Canadians, who had always unquestioningly believed in their country’s hockey supremacy. “The goal heard around the world” was scored at 19:26 of the final period. For a moment the world stood still, and then as the red light flickered behind Vladislav Tretiak, Canadians hearts filled with pride and joy.